Journal

June 14
...

June 7
Nothing special

May 31
Today we visited great wall and took some pictures.

May 24
Today we learned how to make machinema thorough second life... I guess. Because I missed the begging of his presentation.
I entered second life 20 min late because I needed to download most recent version of second life viewer.
Which it took me 30 min to download.... After that, we went outside of building and tried to do something on the stage.
I tried to play guitar and drum, but it did not work... I think there are some problems in the Internet or my laptop.

May 17
Today we learned how to shop. A guy (sorry I forgot his name...) had a little presentation to show us.
After his presentation, we teleported to an island which we can buy free stuff. I tried to buy some clothes,
however I couldn't. I followed what he told us, but it was not working.... I don't know why.

May 10
Today we looked around CISI island. At first I could not find where the place is. But someone
invited me to teleport the place where he/she was at. And I learned how to book mark the island.
So from next time, I can teleport to the island anytime I want.

May 5
Today we tried to use second life during the class. However, there were some Internet connection, therefore I got less
chances to go into the second life. At the end of the lesson, I could sign in. I tried some of functions in the second life.
I tried fly, edit my avatar's clothes and so on.




Second Life Research - Pre-Survey Questions

Questions about you as a Learner
1) Describe your classroom personality (shy, outgoing, personable, engaged, etc).
I'm very shy person. Most of time I do not speak...

2) How effective are you at communicating with other students and teachers on a day-to-day basis (Rate yourself from 1-5 with 1 meaning you are not effective and 5 meaning you are very effective).
2

3) How important do you think it is for your learning to have a “sense of community” in the classroom? Please explain.
?????

4) Are there some learning (classroom) activities where the use of technology helps you learn? If so, please explain why?
For example,
  • In the Design Technology, I can learn many things from using technology. In DT, I need to use CAD software, Google sketch up, Photoshop or whatever graphic software to create 2D as well as 3D sketches in the process of production. And I need these technology to organize my sketches.

5) Are there some learning (classroom) activities where technology does not help you learn? If so, please explain why?
  • Sometimes technology can disturbs people from learning. When I'm attending to class, I sometimes look at things online, which does not have any relation to the class. I'm supposed to not do this kind of thing, but when the technology available anytime, I will spend class time to do personal things...



General Questions about Technology
6) What are some ways that technology may connect people together?
The most typical way that technology connect people is online communicating tools. Like facebook, twitter can help people to contact with anyone over seas. In addition, people even can talk to people you do not know.

7) What are some ways that technology may make people feel disconnected?
When they can not use the Internet. I felt disconnected once when I just moved house and I could not have the Internet connection for weeks. I could not keep contact with my friend, look at up-to date news or someone's blog and so on... I wonder how people can survive when all the Internet went down... I think I would not survive...

8) Is there anything that you don’t like about technology? If so, explain.
I sometimes hate technology because I need to keep up dating. When I was in elementary school, I never have use computers (really!!). And when I was in my old secondary school, I needed computers for researching but I did not use very often. I used desktop computer at home. But when I came to this school, I was really surprised that I need a laptop for each student. In our case, we needed buy two laptops for me and my sister. Two mac!! How expensive!!! When I heard this requirement, it made me really really upset!!! And I never used mac, therefore I took long time to get used to it....

9) What role does technology play in your learning
Well, maybe the information provider, and the best graphic editor. I cannot imagine the life without photoshop.... I need to draw and paint by my hand! How crucical it that! And how lazy I am!! hehehe ;-)

10) Are there any ways that technology gets in the way of your learning? If yes, provide some examples.



Questions about Virtual Learning
11) What are the virtual learning tools we use in the classroom already? Describe briefly how these are used to support your learning.
Elluminate, wikispaces, ning

12) What do you think are the advantages of using tools that allow us to connect and collaborate online? What are the disadvantages?

13) Have you had a 3D virtual world experience before? If yes, describe your experience.
No

14) What do you think classroom learning will be like inside a virtual world like Second Life (SL)?
I think it is very hard to communicate with typing...

15) What importance, if any, do you place in creating your own avatar?
You can protect your identity

16) What role do you think your avatar will play in how you interact with your classmates and teacher in SL?
The avatar in SL is hard to recognize who the people are.

17) Do you think learning inside SL will be challenging? If so,how?
Ummm... I have no idea... because we have not tried yet...

18) What sort of classroom ITGS activities do you think will be possible inside SL?
Elluminate session, online debating, communication

19) How might relationships in a virtual world like SL be different from face-to-face interactions?